Chapter 5
Both of their heads snapped toward me.
Saraphina stood abruptly, a complicated mix of relief, anger, and something dangerously close to longing flashing across her face.
Julian stood more slowly, buttoning his tailored suit jacket with a patronizing smile.
“Ah, the man of the hour,” Julian purred, stepping between me and Saraphina as if shielding her. “Here to squeeze a few more tears and maybe a few more dollars out of the old man before you bow out?”
In the original plot, my character would have lunged at him, thrown a pathetic punch, and been swiftly beaten down by Julian’s bodyguards, further cementing Saraphina’s disgust.
Instead, I looked at Julian as though he were something stuck to the bottom of my shoe.
I ignored him and looked directly at the head bodyguard standing by the glass doors.
“Marcus, is the old man awake?”
Marcus, a stoic veteran who had secretly despised the way the Dubois family treated me, gave a slight, respectful nod.
“He drifted off, Mr. Thorne, but he requested that you be let in immediately if you arrived.”
“Stop right there,” Julian barked, his calm facade cracking slightly at being ignored. “You aren’t family anymore.”
“I don’t remember asking your permission,” I replied coldly, finally meeting Julian’s eyes. The sheer icy indifference in my gaze made him instinctively take half a step back. “And last I checked, Vance, neither are you. You’re just a man warming the seat I just vacated.”
I turned back to Marcus.
“Keep the tourists out. I want five minutes.”
Saraphina gasped and stepped forward.
“Alex, how dare you speak to him like that?”
I didn’t stay to listen to her defend him.
I pushed through the heavy doors and entered the room.
The steady beep of the heart monitor was a grim soundtrack to the frail figure lying in the bed.
Grandpa Dubois opened his cloudy eyes as I approached.
A weak smile formed beneath his oxygen mask.
“Alex, my boy.”
“I’m here, Grandpa,” I said, pulling up a chair and taking his frail, trembling hand.
“Saraphina… that foolish girl…” he wheezed, his grip surprisingly firm. “I heard about the divorce. I tried to stop her.”
“Don’t waste your energy on it, sir,” I said softly but firmly. “It’s for the best. I signed the papers. We’re done. But that doesn’t change the respect I have for you.”
The old man’s eyes filled with tears. He knew me well enough to recognize when my mind was made up.
He coughed and motioned for me to lean closer.
“Julian Vance… he’s a snake, Alex. His family’s logistics company is failing. He’s circling Saraphina for the Dubois assets. I can’t protect her from this bed. You—”
“No,” I interrupted gently. “I’m sorry, Grandpa, but she made her bed. She fought tooth and nail to be with him. I’m not her shield anymore.”
The old man stared at me, seeing the absolute finality in my eyes.
The pathetic, devoted boy he had once matched with his granddaughter was gone.
In his place stood a man who understood his own worth.
Slowly, Grandpa Dubois nodded, a bittersweet resignation settling over him.
“You’ve woken up, Alex,” he whispered. “Good. Fly high, my boy. Don’t look back.”